CLA310 oct 2.docx

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School

University of Toronto St. George

Department

Classics

Course

CLA160H1

Professor

Susan Dunning

Semester

Fall

Description

CLA310 – Lecture October 2
Religious spaces and objects in the Roman world
- Other rituals:
- Parilia – celebrate birthday of Rome
- Purification
- Rural origins – protection for sheep
- October Horse (Equus October)
- Sacrifice to chthonic gods
- Made holocaust offering – a horse
- Ludi Romanii
- Oldest festival involving ludi
- Annual
- Ambarvalia
- Celebrate goddess associated with Ceres
- Compitalia
- Sacrifice to the lares at crossroads
- Important to roman understanding of place
- Parentalia and Lemuria
- To “divine shades”/ ancestors
- Appeasement of the dead
- Private
- Prayers
- Division of ancient prayers
1. invocation – important to get correct deity
2. explanation + justification – why deity should help
3. request
- may include praise of diety
- may or may not be accompanied by material offering
- may be formulaic or spontaneous
- could have rhythm and accompanied by music
- hymns
- distinguishing between hymns and prayers difficult
- metrical or rhythmic; accompanied by music
- offering of praise of thanks to a deity
- requests may be included
- hymn itself is an offering
- often praise of a god = thanksgiving
- complex or simple
- emphasis on beauty of language + performance  pleasure to deity
- may be sung in procession – Greek practice
- main different = hymns are an offering in itself
- mid- republic adopt practice of processions
- hymns accompanied by a visual
- hymn to Juno after prodigy
- brought in by Sibylline Books
- can have similar structure to prayers
- can be followed or preceded by a prayer
- “performance utterances” - Some utterance are actions in themselves
- Examples: I bet you $5; the statement represents the bet
- Important conditions: the persons speaking the utterance must follow conventions of
their society in the appropriate context correctly and sincerely
- Hymns and prayers are religious actions
- Hegio’s prayer to Jupiter for the safe return of this son – Plautus’ play
- Spontaneous but structured
- Shows that boundaries in roman religion can be blurred
- Passage is neither a hymn or a prayer, but a combination of both
- Votive offerings and inscriptions
- For durability and remembrance
- Ludi Saeculares
- Celebrated every 100- 110 years
- Campus Martius – altar by Tarentium dedicated to a chthonic god
- Need to sacrifice a black cow
- Family Valerii instituted this ritual at a time of crisis in Rome
- Then became linked to public sphere
- First record 249 BC called Ludi Tarentini
- Augustus holds the next one in 17 BC – “new tradition”
- Did he change the name to Ludi Saeculares?
- Revival of republican religion – propaganda
- Usher in a “new age” in 17 BC by holding games
- Changes chronology of games to fit his so it would reflect the 100 year
requirement
- By this time he holds every important political and religious position – ability to
change records
- Involves new deities
- Night sacrifices are part of the original festivals – these sacrifices are conducted
by Augustus alone